The Start Of Something Big [Quest]

Job: Investigate the mysterious village

Rank: D

Player Requirements: Solo or in a group with at most five members. 15 posts each; 250 words per post.

Job Requirements: Explore and investigate the suddenly appeared village. Speak to the locals.
Description: News Artical: Reports from a construction crew working in the Spooky Forest claims that their entire work sight has suddenly transformed into a fully populated village over night. The landscape before was nothing but a grassy clearing with hills and large vegetation over running up the nearby trees in the middle of the forest. Even under circumstances of magic, the crew proclaims that it is IMPOSSIBLE for a village to have suddenly appeared and be fully functional as though it has been there for years. In fact, they even had a road already installed for trade, granted it was dirt; it was part of the forest not long ago as but grass and trees.

Rewards: New friends from the village.

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Zenshin's guild was taking a nosedive into a grave and this was unacceptable. His guild mates were either being lazy, or they were just nowhere to be seen altogether, which was a huge problem. In order to combat this particular issue, Zen was prepared to just tear off two or three jobs and complete them all in one run, being as efficient as possible. The first job he picked up was at the lowest tier, D, but called specifically for Eclipse Soul members, so it caught his eye. It was about a mysterious and eerie village appearing in, where else, the Spooky Forest.

Just like that, out of the blue. When some went in to investigate, the residents of the village all acted as though they have always been there and seemed genuinely intrigued at the notion that they all appeared out of nowhere. Of course, in their position, Zenshin would be skeptical if someone told him his whole life didn't happen and that he and all of his acquaintances appeared out of thin air. Currently, he was making his way through the ominous forest, to where the reports of the village have been made. Sure enough, he arrived to a modest, oriental style village . What exactly am I getting myself into was his last thought outside of the village before entering into its vicinity.

He made his way to the first building he saw, a small brown house with two glass windows on both the sides next to the door in the center of the wooden wall.

Slowly reaching for the rusted doorknob of this house, he wondered, this whole town smells really fishy, I really hope I am not getting anything too time consuming, I'm supposed to meet some treasure hunter around the Haunted castle after I'm done here. Hand now on the cool knob, he turned, but quickly found that the door was locked, it looked like he was getting in immorally. Taking a quick look to both sides, then behind him, to see if anyone was around to see catch him in the act, he put his palm to the lock. Looks like no one's around, and the owner of this house just accidentally left the door... *click* open, Zen thought with a smile on his face as he melted the key he had just made to open the lock. I really love my magic sometimes, unique and difficult to deal with. I wish dad was still around to see me now he thought as he entered the home, his smile quickly fading.

The house itself looked pretty nice, a sleek mahogany floor, a fire place covered in brick at the other end of the home, parallel to the door, six windows, one on each side of the door and two on each side of the house, and a small bed to the left. That wasn't all, at the foot of the bed was a small wooden table with a round top with a picture of the owner of the dwelling and what was probably her daughter.

Oh, that's nice... he thought sarcastically while taking another look around, this time noticing a few more missed details because of his initial haste. There was a small lump under the large, circular carpet in front of the fireplace in the shape of a D, probably a handle to go to the basement. He also noticed that the bathroom was on the other side of the house from where the bed was place, and it was a good thing too since Zen didn't really think of going to the restroom back at the guild. Walking over to the door, he opened it, stood in front of the can, and did his business. After concluding that business, he opened the door, only to find a sublimating hand pointed to his face, similar to what he does with his hands whenever he's about to cast a spell, Uh oh...

Quickly, he backed up to the sink that took its place next to the toilet and was under an elliptical mirror that sat in a silver frame. "You've got ten seconds to tell me what an ice maker from some fancy guild is doing breaking into my house before you get a spike through the eye" the women said seriously. "Well, you see, this town isn't supposed to be here, none of you existed before a day or two ago, and now, suddenly, this entire community appears out of nowhere. I've been hired to investigate. Now, get your hand out of my face before I do it" he said with a rather bored look on his face.

"Really now? Okay, Ice ma-!" the women from the picture in the frame by the entrance Zenshin had seen not even five minutes ago began. "I don't think so" he quickly responded, shoving a bar of soap he took from the sink into her mouth and then kicking her out of the bathroom and onto the end of the rug by the fireplace. Walking out of the room and kneeling by the side of the women, he told her, "I didn't come here to fight with a mage, lady, I came to get some answers". "How can I believe someone that breaks into my house, lies to me, and shoves a bar of soap into my face" she replied. Okay, I apologize about that first thing, but you weren't here, so I let myself in, two, I am NOT lying about that, and three, I don't like being impaled inside a stranger's bathroom, though, that might me a personal preference he ended sarcastically.

Zenshin put his arm out to help her up, but she simply slapped his hand away and got up herself, I deserved that. He couldn't help but notice that the women in front of him was much older than the one in the photo, but it was still pretty obvious that they were the same person, must be an old picture, I guess. Before Zenshin could continue to talk to the women, the door slammed open, and a girl, who looked like she was in her early twenties, kicked the door open and seemed as though she was dragging something heavy on a... sled?

"Mom! I'm home!" the girl yelled out, not noticing her mother was very close by. As soon as the whole sled was in, as well as the giant spider that had three ice spears protruding out of it, two in the body, one in the head, which was probably the one that ended it, the red headed girl kicked the door shut and finally turned to face her mother and the, 'guest'. "Oh, he's a cutie. Trying to set me up with another village boy mom?" she said playfully while slowly raises her arm up to him. "No, he's just some outsider that broke into our house and can't even tell a decent lie" she responded, Zen baffled by the whole situation. "Ice make, hummingbird!" she said suddenly, causing a small bird to come out of thin air and shoot itself at Zenshin.

Frustrated that this family was so persistently aggressive towards him, he motioned his fist through the air as if slamming it on a table while simultaneously calling out a spell, "Dark ice, pillar!" A large, darkly colored pillar shot out of the ceiling right in front of Zenshin, smashing the bird bullet before evaporating into the air, not even leaving a dent in the floor before doing so. Both the girl and the women were staring at him in awe before the women motioned to follow her into the basement. With a sigh, he followed down the creaky wooden steps into a rather nice basement, it has a small, rectangular, cedar table with matching seats, two on each side, and when the women and her daughter sat down, he did too.

The girl had gestured him to sit next to her while this talk went down, I guess she wasn't kidding when she said that she found me attractive. That's nice I guess... if she didn't attack me right after. "I apologize for attacking you earlier, I'm just... a bit jumpy. This town's a little weird, and I thought you were here for, other reasons. But then, when you were just defending instead of attacking, I realized you weren't from here" she began. We are also outsiders, well, we were when we stumbled upon this village the other day... Everyone was so friendly, and Lucy and I were searching for a new, out of the way place to live, so we moved here". After a breath, she continued, "It's rare to see another ice maker these days, and even MORE rare so see a member of the Hitsumo bloodline, we welcome you to our home. Anyways, more about the village-".

"You know my family name? How?" Zenshin asked curiously, forgetting about why he was here for a moment. "Are you joking? You're family name is very, very renowned among the ice makers of Fiore, almost every one of us knows of your father. He was known for his ability to mesh ice and darkness together into his creations, giving them that unique power and tint behind them" she responded, surprised by Zen's question. "Oh, I see, sorry. It's just surprising, as I don't meet many other ice makers in my jobs around Fiore. Actually, you are the only ones aside from a guild member I had a while back..."

"Yeah, anyways. Strange things happen when the sun goes down, like, very, very strange. Unsettling would probably be the better word, as every night, we can both hear heavy breathing right next to us, but when we check, nothing is there. That's not all, everyone seems to know our life stories too, earlier, we were walking around, and some women we've never seen asked us how we were doing about my husbands departure for the Rune Knights, he left yesterday. If you really wanna solve this thing, I would reccomend checking the Guru's house, here, I'll make a map for you." she said while putting her hands on the table and creating a three-d map out of ice. After a nod to the two and picking up the map, he climbed back up the memorably creaky stairs and out the door, So... the plot thickens.

Before heading up to see the big boss of the mysterious village that was getting more and more creepy as he walked through it, I'm getting a bad feeling about all this... I hope the client knows what he asked for. Continuing down a dirt path, he stumbled upon another house, similar to the one he had come from. So, he walked up to the door and knocked this time, not wanting to break into a house where someone could be in a basement. After a male voice from inside told him to hold on, he opened the door. "If you wouldn't mine, I would like to ask you a few questions about your town" Zenshin said politely, and the man promptly let him in.

Walking into the man's house, Zenshin noticed that it looked almost exactly like the other house he had just been to, except for the addition of a small stove and sink to the right side of the house as well as a wooden table with metallic chairs in the same area. "Please, have a seat, I was just in the middle of making myself some lunch" the man said generously, so he gladly sat down in one of the silver chairs. "Would you like anything to drink?" he asked Zenshin, not taking his eyes off of the pot on the stove that he seemed to be heating with his hand. A generous and hospitable fire mage, now THAT'S something you don't see every day Zen thought to himself before responding, "Just a glass of water please". "To tell you the truth, we don't get many visitors in our village, even less here at my home, so, what brings you here?" the man asked curiously, sliding his guest the glass of water.

"It seems that there was a reporting, and I am not joking here, by a construction crew that this village was just an empty clearing the other day, and now, it's a fully functional village that seems like it has been around for years" Zen explained. "Oh, well, that definitely sounds like a strange happening. Mostly because I've lived in this village all my life". On the outside, Zenshin nodded, but he was really thinking something completely different, this just gets stranger and stranger doesn't it...

"Well then, that's definitely unsettling for someone who's trying to find out what the whole deal with this entire village is. Now, I have another question, if you don't mind. Does anything strange ever go on at night, like strange noises or anything like that?" he asked the host. "Hmm, not that I'm aware of, and remember, I have always lived here. If something suddenly went amiss, I would know. This is definitely quite the job you took yourself, it must be hard for the other villagers to hear what you have to say" the man replied. "Here's a suggestion, why don't you go talk to the guru of the village? I don't really want to make him sound like a bad woman, since she created this village from the ground up, but she has always seemed to be hiding something from all of us". After a quick wave to his host for the excellent hospitality and cooperation, he stood up from the chair, leaving a *screech* noise as it scratched against the floor, and left through the open door, closing it on his way out. I think I'll visit one more resident of this place before heading up to see the big boss of it, because who knows what that's going to be like... Zen thought hesitantly.

Zenshin began walking to the next door neighbor of the fire mage, since it was the closest house around other than the one he had just come out of. Knocking on the door, he had hoped that someone would respond, but nothing. Being as persistent as he was, he decided to keep knocking on the door for a while, until he heard a *click* of the lock and witnessed the slow opening of the door.

Zenshin walked into yet another very, very similar house to the others, the only difference being the table in the middle of the house with two chairs sitting their under a lamp with an upside down funnel type of shade. "Please, sit" a female voice said from behind him while the door closed behind him. Confused by the current situation he was in, whether or not she was being forceful or hospitable, he tried to turn to look at her, only to be greeted by a hand on his shoulder and the same voice saying, "I said, sit". Zen could feel her hand grow increasingly colder, and seeing as how he was an ice mage, she was getting pretty low on the temperature scale. "I hate to break it to you miss, but I'm an ice mage who can withstand tens of degrees lower than what you're trying on me right now" he said with a grin on his face.

"An male ice mage? You must be an outsider than, seeing as how you don't really look like part of the maker family across the path" she said, removing her hand from his shoulder and walking towards the table in the middle of the house. "I apologize about that, its just that, strange things have been going on in the town since yesterday, its left me a little paranoid". She gestured over to the other chair as soon as she sat down, so Zen decided to comply and sit down in the seat in front of his host.

"I had heard there was an outsider going around asking people questions about the village and how its not supposed to be here apparently, and before you say anything, yes, it's a small village, word goes around fast" she began, clarifying how she knew he was coming. "Well, yeah, that's the gist of why I'm here, I'm trying to get to the bottom of why this village is even here. According to a construction crew, this place was a clearing in the forest a few days ago" he responded. "Let's get to it then, have you noticed anything weird things lately?" he asked her while scratching the back of his head with his right hand. "Not really, to me it seems like nothing has really been different, and I've lived here since I was a child, so I think I would know if something was a bit weird" she said. That's just about the same thing as the other guy said, then again, it's what I would say if someone told me my whole life and home was a lie. I shouldn't over think that too much.

"What about anything else, anything at all. It doesn't have to be blatantly strange, just, the little things that don't seem right. The kind of things where you just shrug it off for your imagination" Zenshin said persistently, he wasn't leaving this house without more information than he came into it with. She looked at the ceiling, probably thinking about what he said for a while, then looked back down with a surprised face, the kinda face that screamed, "well, there is one thing."

"Well, there is one thing..." called it "Yesterday, when I woke up, I couldn't help but notice that my table had been moved to the middle of my house, and two chairs that I have never seen before had shown up on both sides of the table, the ones we're sitting on right now". "...and you didn't think to mention that until now?" he asked impatiently. "Well, how would you react is a stranger told you that her furniture moved itself overnight and that two of the pieces of furniture weren't even hers. You would call her crazy, right?" she explained. "Fair enough".

As Zenshin got up to walk out of the house, the women stopped him by grabbing his wrist, "Wait! I wanted to ask a favor since I let you into my house and gave you what you needed" she said. Oh, that's dirty he thought with an annoyed expression on his face before responding to her, "what is it? What did you want me to do for you?" "You could say that, I'm the village's protector, from things like bandits, wolves, other things that live in the forest. I wanted to test my strength against an outsider and learn a few things. Even more so because you seem like such a curious individual". Flattered by her comment, he decided, why not, and followed the gesturing women into her basement, which seemed to be converted into a sparring arena. Wow, she doesn't mess around, this place actually looks like a pretty decent place to spar with others in

She must've fought at least anyone she could in the village and is just trying to get stronger to continue to protect it, I can't say that I don't respect that, but I need to go soon, so I'll just finish this as quick as I can he thought while moving to the opposite end of the room. "Ready? Go!" she said when Zen nodded to her question, and almost immediately as she came rushing at him with a glowing hand, he looked down and activated truth, a mysterious power he was born with that gave him the power to negate magic in an area for a period of time. She brought her arm forward, probably in an attempt to cast an offensive spell, and the look on her face when it just wouldn't work was actually quite priceless. Taking the element of surprise to his advantage, he cocked his right arm back and threw a hook with it, holding nothing back as he had places to be right. His fist met with her face, pushing her down to the ground to Zenshin's left, holding her face out of shock that her spell didn't work and just the sheer strength of the blow.

"But, why didn't it work?" she said while wiping some blood off with her hand from a cut lip. Extending his hand to help her up, he explained, "It's a power I was born with, don't think too much of it, really. I'll be back, and we can have a serious fight then, but right now, I have things to do".

After that, Zen went back up the steps and left her house, closing the door on his way out. That's strange, I could've sworn that I closed the door on the way in, hm. Not thinking to much of it, he decided that it was finally time for him to go visit the leader of the village's home, or whatever it was called. Since he really didn't grow up in a village, he didn't know how these things worked, but he was getting more and more of an understanding as he walked through and met the different people. It was a very tightly knit community, everyone knew everyone else and they all helped each other out, but that wasn't the kind of vibe that this particular village was giving of, maybe that was just wrong and books couldn't tell him everything about these kinds of places. Either that, or something in this village was very wrong, something subtle, but lingering. The more he investigated, the more curious he became, and Zenshin wasn't the kind of person to let curiosity be.

Finally arriving at the leader's hut, he really wasn't sure what to expect, seeing as how the villagers each gave a different piece of information about anything weird going on in the village, either subtle, or not so much. Hard to believe that a few days ago, this entire settlement didn't even exist. Would it still be around the next time he came to it? All these questions raced through his head as he put his hand on the guru's door, and pushed forward.

Upon entering the hut, the strangest thing he had ever been a part of had happened, it seemed as though he entered into a forest, and upon looking back over his shoulder, it was apparent that he was outside of the village, right on the border. What in the world just happened, I was entering the hut and... and it led me outside of the town? What exactly IS this place, I have never heard of any kind of magic that could do this he thought. There was one thing that he could say was an absolute fact, this village is very, very far from normal, and it was probably never supposed to exist until later into the future. Whatever it was, Zen wasn't getting answers until he spoke with the leader of the village, and for that to happen, he would need to go back into it. When he tried walking back in, it was like he hit an invisible barrier, even causing a small lump to form on his forehead.

Taking a step back, he shot a barrage of ice shuriken at the invisible barrier, but to no avail, it seemed that he would have to try again later, as there was no way of getting in right now, which actually kind of frustrated him. Zen felt as though he was so close to getting the answers he needed, but like a dollar on a hook, it was pulled from right in front of him when he got close enough to smell it. Shrugging it off for now, he headed for his next job, to the Haunted Castle.

Well, you certainly made that thread rather interesting. I have to give you a high five and a round of applause for that. Though I suppose you want this more: